The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

Facebook’s shares have had an incredible week. In five trading days, the stock has entered bull market territory. Investors bid up Facebook's shares by another 6% to $23.50 in Friday morning trading.

It’s quite a turnaround for a stock that started the week down about 50% from its IPO, which was conducted a short six months ago. For many it looked like the stock would be under serious pressure as some 800 million shares were released from their lock-up restrictions on Wednesday.

Instead, shares of Facebook have soared by more than 22% this week. Some called it a short squeeze, others believed investors had already fully priced the long-anticipated and well-known lock-up expiration into the stock. With the biggest share lock-up expiration out of the way, it seemed like believers in the Facebook story found it safer to buy into the stock. All this happened while the broader U.S. stock market got clobbered this week.

There was more good news: On Wednesday Charles “Chase” Coleman’s $8 billion Tiger Global hedge fund, co-managed with Feroz Dewan, disclosed it had taken a big new position in Facebook stock during the third-quarter, another bullish sign given that Coleman has been the hottest hedge fund manager in America for the last two years and traded Facebook better than just about anybody.

Mark Zuckerberg still has a lot of work to do: Facebook sold shares to the public in May for $38 each. But this week it seems the company easily cleared a big hurdle in the stock market.